Foolish Choice
by Higuchimon
Summary: [au: hell's ice] An unnatural blizzard rages over Duel Academia and Shou decides his long-missing brother must be responsible. So he goes to look for him. There's not much that can make the Hell Kaiser of Ice facepalm, but his younger brother walking into a supernatural blizzard can pull it off nicely.


**Disclaimer:** I own nothing involved in this story unless I invented it myself. This is written for fun, not for profit. All forms of feedback eagerly accepted. Concrit is loved the most, but everything is welcome.  
 **Fandom:** Yu-Gi-Oh GX  
 **Title:** Foolish Choice  
 **Characters:** Shou  & Ryou  
 **Word Count:** 1,000|| **Status:** One-shot  
 **Genre:** Family|| **Rated:** G  
 **Challenge:** Written for the Diversity Writing Challenge, section B60, write a paragraph with at least four fullstops; Written for One Sibling Boot Camp, #32, ice  
 **Notes:** This takes place in my Hell's Ice AU, where Ryou is/was one of the Seven Stars and has power over ice, cold, and snow.  
 **Summary:** An unnatural blizzard rages over Duel Academia and Shou decides his long-missing brother must be responsible. So he goes to look for him. There's not much that can make the Hell Kaiser of Ice facepalm, but his younger brother walking into a supernatural blizzard can pull it off nicely.

* * *

Shou stared out of the window of Osiris Red and shivered. This wasn't the way that the island should look in March. It shouldn't look like this _ever_ , being a tropical island, but March heralded spring. He shouldn't be looking at three feet of snow and icicles hanging down from the roofs and tree branches. And yet, there the snow and the ice gleamed.

 _Three days._ The snow had started coming down three days earlier, whirling in during the middle of the night, and no one could explain why. Every weather forecaster and expert in the world confessed they were beyond baffled by this. It shouldn't have been happening. They mouthed buzzwords that meant nothing and certainly didn't help with the snow. President Kaiba had sent people to help clear paths, since the island hadn't had anyone who had experience with doing that.

Shou knew who it was. He didn't want to believe it, but after that night, after meeting those ice-cold eyes and seeing monsters that should not have existed in another's hands, he _knew_. He just didn't want to tell anyone. Who would believe him?

 _They'd just tell me that I was making it up, that I want it to be him so much that I'm seeing things._

He'd thought about that himself. But he didn't think it was true. Yes, he missed his brother. Yes, he'd fought hard to come here to Duel Academia just on the mere chance that he _might_ find Ryou, or at least find out what happened to him.

But he knew he hadn't dreamed that encounter in the woods, nor had he made it up at all. Not only were those eyes the same as his brother's, if colder and more distant, but the voice was the same as well. At least on a lot of levels; Shou wasn't a voice expert, but he thought the guy his brother had become had gone through more than he could ever imagine right now.

He wanted to go out and find him. He wanted to know _why_ this sudden snowstorm, and just how Ryou could do it. He'd seen the stranger, the one who called himself Hyougaki, create ice and snow with little more than a flick of one hand. Ryou was Hyougaki. He'd never said so, never let a hint slip, but Shou _knew_. His brother couldn't hide who he was from Shou, no more than Shou could've hidden from him. He just _knew_.

So he wanted to know how this happened and what it meant. It couldn't be anything good. Hyougaki most certainly hadn't treated any of them well that night. The way that he'd stomped all over Juudai sent chills all through Shou if he dared to think about it. The style had been _like_ his brother's, but far, far chillier, and not just because of the ice hanging off every tree branch and stone in the area.

Shou grabbed his thick parka, identical to all the ones that every other student had been given when this blizzard began, and left a note for Juudai and Hayato. _Going to find out what did this. I'll be back later._

He hoped he would be anyway.

* * *

Shou was out in the snow. In the _blizzard_ that he'd brought down on Duel Academia. Ryou's fingers flexed in mild irritation. What was the idiot doing out here? Anyone with a grain of sense would've stayed indoors, even in Osiris Red. None of the dorms had been built with heating in mind, and Red least of all, but he knew for a fact Samejima had had heaters brought in on the second day of the storm. So Shou should be where it was _warm_ instead of traipsing around _calling for him_.

And yet that was exactly what Shou was doing, tilting his head back every now and then and calling for his big brother.

 _As if I would answer._ He had no intentions of revealing himself as anyone other than Hyougaki until the moment he'd chosen, which wouldn't be for another day or two yet.

How could Shou even guess that he would be around here? There had been that night when he'd dueled Yuuki Juudai and Shou watched, but could he have given himself away then? He didn't _think_ so. Perhaps the deck had done more to tell who he was than he'd thought it would.

The point of the matter was that Shou was walking in the snow, trudging his way around, and probably going to slip and break his leg, or worse, his neck. _He_ could walk through snow and over ice as if it were no more than cleared ground but Shou did not share this power. Could never share it; what darkness he had in him did not taste of ice and snow.

Ryou considered his options. Shou had already made his way into the forest. Retracing his steps would be unlikely to take him back, since the snow covered them up already. _His_ snow and _his_ icicles that fell at the slightest noise, sharp-edged and dangerous, ready to cut anyone who touched them.

Options? He had only two. To leave Shou to work his way into a frozen death or to guide him back to safety and warmth where he belonged. He knew which one Kagemaru would suggest. He knew which one _Camula_ would suggest.

But he knew which one _he_ was going to do, at least mostly because he knew what they would expect of him.

Even when he walked in darkness, he chose his own path, and if that path should intersect with Shou's, and guide his little brother to the safety of the dorm room, then that was his decision to make.

He would also have to inform Principal Samejima about what Shou did and see to it that no one else tried such an idiotic stunt. He wouldn't save who wasn't Shou.

Well, maybe Fubuki. If the idiot tried anything like this. But that was different.

 **The End**

 **Note:** Thank you for reading and I hope that you enjoyed the story. Please let me know what you thought of it if at all possible.


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